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@johnobrien.bsky.social Sep 15, 2026, 4:37 PM

This week's examples of poems from eighteenth-century newspapers are parodies of Hamlet's soliloquy: "To Drink or Not to Drink”
literatureinc.substack.com/p/to-drink-o... #c18 #poetry #c18th

@nguthrie.bsky.social Sep 15, 2026, 1:26 PM

Random object in the V&A East Storehouse: Masonic armchair from the mid #c18 #c18th #18thc

Chippendale-ish walnut armchair with lighter wood inlay featuring Masonic emblems (ruler, sextant etc) at the top. Seat cushion covered in white ptotective fabric. From the Middlesex Lodge.

@nguthrie.bsky.social Sep 15, 2026, 10:15 AM

Nerding out at the V&A East Storehouse with this enamel portrait medallion of Horace Walpole, donated by Lady Charlotte Schreiber! (Catalogue says it's 'probably' Walpole, but it surely is - I know that face) #c18 #c18th #18thc

Oval medallion in a brass frame with a loop at the top for suspension. White enamel ground on copper, transfer-print portrait in purple. HW wears a frock coat and white shirt with cravat, hair natural but powdered and curled over the ears.

My purple-gloved hand holding the medallion

Underside with cracked surface, V&A accession number painted in black, two monogrammed collector’s labels (one with ‘Portrait Hirace Walpole’ in ink

Online catalogue version of the portrait side of the medallion, without reflections

@nguthrie.bsky.social Sep 14, 2026, 11:25 AM

Chinoiserie mirror made for Halnaby Hall, Yorkshire (c1750-160, V&A #c18 #c18th #18thc

Rocco mirror with elaborate scrollwork in gilt wood, with Chinese figures and houses perched here and there

@nguthrie.bsky.social Sep 14, 2026, 7:52 AM

Table snuffboxes made for Frederick the Great (c1765, c1775-90) from the Gilbert collection, V&A #c18 #c18th #18thc

Mother-of-pearl, various gemstones,gold, silver and foil in a pattern of rococo scrollwork and flowers

Bloodstone and a profusion of gemstones in the form of a bouquet of flowers

@nguthrie.bsky.social Sep 13, 2026, 3:37 PM

Pair of white marble reliefs (c1686) at the V&A. From the workshop of Grinling Gibbons & Arnold Quellin for King James II’s short-lived RC chapel in Whitehall Palace #Jacobite (long) #c18 #c18th #18thc

Putto with a crowned escutcheon bearing the Scottish royal arms

Putto with a crowned escutcheon bearing the royal arms of Ireland

@nguthrie.bsky.social Sep 13, 2026, 1:21 PM

London! First stop, the ceramics galleries at the V&A #c18 #c18th #18thc

@sarahmurden.bsky.social Sep 12, 2026, 2:27 PM

From the archives of All Things Georgian, 'Martin Van Butchell and his crowded marriage' - wp.me/p3JTNy-4FA #c18 #c18th #18thc

@nguthrie.bsky.social Sep 12, 2026, 10:32 AM

Silver snuffbox (English, c1740) #c18 #c18th #18thc

Cartouche-shaped box with rococo design of scrollwork and flowers surrounding a balustrade with a garden landscape beyond

@asls.org.uk Sep 11, 2026, 4:04 PM

A staged reading of Joanna Baillie’s 1798 comedy THE TRYAL. The text has been modified for the stage: it has been shortened but there is also a scene added to clarify the plot. This reading brings to life a text Baillie was unable to produce in her own day.
#C18 #C19
www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3ks...

@asls.org.uk Sep 11, 2026, 4:04 PM

Joanna Baillie supported working-class poets & female writers. She inspired Byron & was considered by Harriet Martineau “second only to Shakespeare”. The @collegeofsurgeons.bsky.social of England has volumes of her work in their Research Room
#C18 #C19
www.rcseng.ac.uk/library-and-...

@asls.org.uk Sep 11, 2026, 4:04 PM

Joanna Baillie (1762–1851) was born #OTD, 11 Sep. Plays on the Passions, a series of female-led comedies & tragedies, brought Baillie fame during a period when serious drama was in decline. Her 256th birthday was commemorated by a Google doodle in 2018
🎂🧵
#C18 #C19
doodles.google/doodle/joann...

@nguthrie.bsky.social Sep 11, 2026, 10:24 AM

Small tureen or broth bowl with cover (Bow, c1755) #c18 #c18th #18thc

White porcelain with raised decoration in the form of flowering prunus branches (derived from Chinese originals and widely imitated by English and European factories e.g. Bow as here, Chelsea, Chantilly, Saint-Cloud, Meissen)

Detail of lid showing flowering branches and handle in the form of a twig

@nguthrie.bsky.social Sep 10, 2026, 10:37 AM

Silver and agate snuffbox (English, c1740) #c18 #c18th #18thc

Cartouche-shaped solver box with engraved flowers around the rim of the lid, which encloses a variegated brown agate with moss-like inclusions

@nguthrie.bsky.social Sep 9, 2026, 10:16 AM

Figure of a Sami sorceress by J-J Kändler (Meissen, c1750), recently sold by E&H Manners to the Victoria & Albert Museum #c18 #c18th #18thc

Figure of an ugly old woman with bad teeth, hooked nose, heavy eyebrows and eyes facing in different directions. She wears a long white robe and long black coat, a scarf on her head. She holds a white oval drum inscribed with figures of animals and hunters.
Dealer's description: In this unique and unusually large figure Kaendler has modelled a grotesque and haggard sorceress holding a drum which is a precise copy of the Sámi shaman’s drum that was presented to the Elector of Saxony, Johann Georg II, on 28th March 1668 by Kristian Albrekt, Duke of Holstein (1641-1695). The drum survives and is now held in the Museum für Völkerkunde Dresden. The drawing on the reindeer skin and the pierced structure of the wooden bowl are copied almost exactly indicating that both Kaendler and the painter of the figure had access to the original drum. The reason for this model being made is not recorded, it was clearly not for commercial production but for some purpose within the court of Dresden. The Dresden drum was most likely one of those confiscated by missionaries seeking to covert the Sámi to Christianity in the early 17th century. A number were brought to Copenhagen for the royal Kunstkammer and the missionary college. It was presented to the Elector along with a two-part painting titled “Dis sint de sitten von Laplant” [These are the customs of Lapland]. The drum (and painting) are recorded in the inventories of the “Indianische Cammer” in 1684, 1710, 1716, 1783 (by which time the bone clapper had been lost) and 1821. In 1838, it was recorded (without the painting) in the inventory of the “Türkenzelt” [Turkish Tent]; in 1838 it became part of the Historical Museum of the royal collections, and in 1979 it was transferred to the Zoologische und Anthropologisch-Ethnographische Museum in Dresden, now known as the Museum für Völkerkunde.
37.0 cm high
See https://www.rare-ceramics.com/past-sales/a-meissen-figure-of-an-sorceress/

@nushpowell.bsky.social Sep 8, 2026, 9:41 PM

@ladytyler.bsky.social is the most careful and rigorous historian of Anne Bonny and Mary Read out there: her work is well worth sifting. Check it out: journals.gmu.edu/whc/article/... #C18

@nguthrie.bsky.social Sep 8, 2026, 10:32 AM

Pair of small carafes (Irish, c1820). (Long) #c18 #c18th #18thc

Bulbous decanters with ridged necks, band around the middle with cut lattice-work pattern, no stoppers. Greyish colour, which is characteristic of Irish glass

@asls.org.uk Sep 7, 2026, 1:58 PM

From 2024: @drcleoocy.bsky.social examines the representation of English & Scottish national stereotypes in the novels of Scottish authors Susan Ferrier, Mary Brunton, & Elizabeth Hamilton

From Reading Scotland at @unimainz.bsky.social
#C18 #C19 #WomenWriters
www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_OK...

@asls.org.uk Sep 7, 2026, 1:58 PM

“𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘐𝘯𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 is, then, a novel concerned with questions of morality & education, but also national identity, the differences between Scottish & English cultures…It is also very funny”

—Books & Borrowing, 1750–1830 on Susan Ferrier’s 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘐𝘯𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦
#C18 #C19
borrowing.stir.ac.uk/forgotten-be...

@asls.org.uk Sep 7, 2026, 1:58 PM

Infinite Women: Susan Edmonstone Ferrier

In this episode of the @infinite-women.com podcast, @drcleoocy.bsky.social & @kateferrier.bsky.social discuss Susan Ferrier’s life & work
#C18 #C19 #WomenWriters
www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbHj...